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                    <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><font size="1" color="#333333"><font color="#000000"><b><font size="2"><br>
                      Woody's Commentary</font></b></font></font><br>
                      <font size="1"><br>
                      I was flying from Dublin to LA, directly over a city called 
                      Galdthab, Greenland (which translates to &quot;God's home&quot;) 
                      when the pilot came over the intercom with the news that 
                      we would be returning to Dublin and then explained why. 
                      The plane was silent. It was September 11th and I knew instantly 
                      that life would never be the same for America. It was the 
                      first opportunity for modern Americans to experience the 
                      reality of war on our soil, and that is exactly what all 
                      of us experienced together, the cold, brutal, unflinching, 
                      horror of war.<br>
                      <br>
                      And now a fear has crept into our collective conscience. 
                      The events of September 11th coupled with the anthrax valentines 
                      have literally shaken many of us to the core and friends 
                      of mine who are giants have been toppled. I was depressed 
                      for a while but bounced back by cutting myself off from 
                      the endless torrent of bad and worse news. <br>
                      <br>
                      Assurance that bin Laden was the culprit came from the mother 
                      country and particularly from G.W.'s brother-in-arms across 
                      the bay, Tony Blair. I was surprised at first until I read 
                      that their information was provided by the U.S. Our government 
                      is clever and so as not to appear to be overeager warmongers 
                      they had the (as yet undisclosed) proof come from Tony the 
                      Tory. Always interesting to watch our leaders at work.<br>
                      <br>
                      I suppose bin Laden was responsible, though we have many 
                      enemies. We have become the world's biggest bully and use 
                      our military might to support our corporate agenda. What 
                      is the common thread that runs through bin Laden, Saddam 
                      Hussein, the Shah of Iran, Libya's Gaddafi, Panama's Noriega, 
                      the Philippine's Marcos, and countless other fascist barbarians? 
                      All of them were CIA trained, financed with our tax dollars 
                      and supported by our government until it was appropriate 
                      to turn on them.<br>
                      <br>
                      Our government always uses the key, emotionally charged 
                      words, &quot;freedom&quot;, &quot;democracy&quot; and 'peace&quot; 
                      as reasons for engaging our considerable military might. 
                      But beneath the superficial agenda we have the real agenda, 
                      &quot;money&quot; and every direction our foreign policy 
                      takes us we have serious corporate interests. If saving 
                      lives or protecting innocent people were really our government's 
                      concern, why would we not have moved more quickly to stop 
                      the Serbs in Bosnia or to stop the genocide in Rwanda? <br>
                      <br>
                      Now we are bombing the people of Afghanistan who are unfortunate 
                      enough to sit in an area that is home to the most plentiful 
                      oil reserves in the world and extremely strategic to the 
                      &quot;Seven Sisters&quot;. History is repeating itself as 
                      these oil interests had an oil interested President Bush 
                      fight their last oil war there only a decade ago. <br>
                      <br>
                      I lost a friend on September 11th and have talked to many 
                      others who share this loss and who feel rightly that the 
                      perpetrator of this terrible act should be brought to justice. 
                      But is our quarrel with the people of Afghanistan? No. Certainly 
                      the Taliban sponsors and protects bin Laden and other terrorists 
                      but our leaders knew that when they gave them 43 million 
                      dollars in May to fight the war on non-corporate drugs. 
                      <br>
                      <br>
                      Part of my brain hesitates to take a tangent here but let's 
                      face it, the war on drugs is linked to the war in Afghanistan. 
                      Both are unjust wars with many innocent victims but the 
                      war on drugs is focused mostly on marijuana and it's nonpsychoactive 
                      cousin, the industrial hemp plant. As you know I am an outspoken 
                      supporter of this crop that used to be our nations number 
                      one cash crop and can make clothing, paper, fuel, construction 
                      material etc. Industrial hemp is not about getting high 
                      (I tried in leaner times), it is about sustainability and 
                      getting off the dinosaur tit, halting the destruction of 
                      the world's forests, discouraging pesticide use and supporting 
                      the farmers of this country. In short, it is about a return 
                      to the natural.<br>
                      <br>
                      We have been warned repeatedly that this will be a costly 
                      and protracted war. In the end, we won't be one step closer 
                      to bringing bin Laden to justice and in fact he will gain 
                      more support from Muslims around the world, just as Sadam 
                      Hussein now experiences more support in Iraq, (where we 
                      left 400,000 dead and where we continued bombing until September 
                      11th) and just as George W. experiences 92% approval here 
                      since we were attacked.<br>
                      <br>
                      Already there are many civilian casualties in Afghanistan 
                      as our billion-dollar warplanes nightly rain terror from 
                      their skies. But I wonder, as the count of innocent dead 
                      there reaches and surpasses five thousand, how can we wave 
                      our flags, pump our fists in the air and not see that our 
                      eye for an eye philosophy is blinding our conscience, empowering 
                      the guilty and killing the innocent. I love the people of 
                      this country but am deeply ashamed of the actions of our 
                      government. <br>
                      <br>
                      I am impressed with how our country can rally round the 
                      flag when we are attacked but imagine all of us uniting 
                      in a push toward independence and sustainability. It is 
                      my hope, as innocent Afghani people experience the horror 
                      of war, that we come to see our personal responsibility 
                      in getting off the grid and in making daily choices that 
                      support a natural, sustainable lifestyle. Whether it means 
                      buying solar panels, an electric car, or non-wood paper 
                      there are many ways to lay down our consumer dollars consciously 
                      rather than feeding the corporate beast. Our government 
                      is not looking after our best interests or those of our 
                      planet. It's up to us, everyday.</font></font></p>
                    <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"> 
                      <font color="#000000">If you would like to discuss Woody's 
                      commentary, join us at</font><font color="#6633CC"> <b><a href="http://forums.voiceyourself.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=6"><font color="#000000">the 
                      Bulletin Board&gt;&gt;.</font></a></b></font></font></p>
                    <p>&nbsp;</p>
                    <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><font size="1"><br>
                      <br>
                      </font></font></p>
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